The San Francesco wood and the flowering of cyclamen

Next to the basilica of Assisi there is a wall that divides the stone city from the one made of trees and plants. The wood of San Francesco was once abandoned and left to decay. The trees, mostly oaks, were now nearing death. There was garbage everywhere, the lanes were neglected, the place was not inviting. Not only that: there was a large debt to be repaid to Banca Intesa San Paolo. A FAI manager, however, visited the wood, and after the first perplexities he realized that it was a place to be saved. It was an extraordinary flowering of cyclamen that convinced him and set him in motion, against all rationality. Volunteers cleaned up the dirt, about 30 tons of waste was collected. The Bank donated the 64 hectares of land to FAI, and a donation made it possible to purchase the medieval tower that stood in the center of a clearing. In the clearing, the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, with the help of two oxen, has created a work that represents the balance between nature and technology. Today 20,000 people a year visit this beautiful forest.